Walter T. McVicker Biography   Barbour County, WV
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Submitted by:Valerie Crook <vfcrook@earthlink.net>


The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 585
Barbour

WALTER T. McVICKER controls a prosperous industrial
enterprise in the production of chestnut poles for the use
of telephone and telegraph companies, and he has his resi-
dence in the thriving little city of Belington, Barbour
County. He was born on the home farm, in Union District,
this county, December 20, 1881, and there he was reared to
adult age, his educational advantages having been those
of the rural schools. At the age of sixteen he found employ-
ment and began to depend upon his own resources, and with
money which he saved finally defrayed his expenses of a
course in the Mountain State Business College, Parkersburg,
West Virginia, finishing his schooling in 1902. In the
same year went into the lumber woods of this section of
the state as a log sealer, and was thus employed until
1904, when he became a partner in the business conducted
by Belington Planing Mill Company, with which he con-
tinued bis active association until 1908. He was then
made eastern representative of the Farrin-Korn Lumber

Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, with headquarters in New York
City, which position he held for three years. Returning to
Belington in 1911 he became connected with Belington
Handle & Manufacturing Company, having been actively
concerned in the initiation and development of the sub-
stantial business of this company. From October, 1917,
to May, 1920, he was a. successful field representative of
the great Western Electric Company, with which he is still
affiliated, but in May, 1.920, he founded his independent
enterprise in the producing and marketing of chestnut
poles at Belington, with the Western Electric Company as
his principal customer, making shipments of chestnut poles
to the various telephone and telegraph companies through-
out the eastern and middle western states. His enterprise
thus lends stimulus to the commercial activities of West
Virginia.

Mr. McVicker is one of the vital and progressive busi-
ness men of Belington, served in 1921 and 1922 as a member
of the City Council, is an influential member of the local
Business Men's Club, is affiliated with Belington Lodge No.
125, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, attends and sup-
ports in his home city the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South.

Mr. McVicker's father, Granvil G. McVicker, was the son of
Levi McVicker, who was one of the early settlers of Taylor
County. The descendants of Granvil G. McVicker, the father
of Walter T. are as follows: by his first marriage, John Mor-
gan McVicker and Joseph Lee McVicker. By his second mar-
riage, Walter T., of this review; Lonzo C., who served in
the employ of the United States Government for a number
of years in Philippine Islands, died November 25, 1920,
while on board a vessel enroute to a hospital at Zamboanga,
Philippine Islands; Otoway S., farmer, in Union District,
Barbour County; Hazel, wife of P. H. Fallen, Buckhannon,
West Virginia; and Columbus O., who served with the
American Expeditionary Forces in France, in Company
M, One-hundred and Thirty-second Infantry, Thirty-third
Division.

January 24, 1916, recorded the marriage of Mr. Mc-
Vicker to Miss Chloe Sherman, who was born and reared
near Belington, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William
Sherman. Mr. and Mrs. McVicker have two sons: William
R. (adopted) and Walter T., Jr.